Classroom Ponderings
by Leuny
Summary: Hakuba had a lot to think about. This has been written in answer to a Daily Word Prompt Challenge on Poirot Café's forum. Introspective drabble ahead!


_Classroom Ponderings_

**Disclaimer**: Magic Kaito does not belong to me.

**AN**: This little drabble got written because of a Challenge I read about on the Poirot Café forum! You can read more about that at the end of the story, in another author's note. :_) Enjoy, dear readers, this little story of mine! Have fun!

Hakuba had a lot to think about.

Sitting in class, with the blackboard ahead of him and his classmates besides him, he had all the time in the world to consider his most probable suspect when it came to the phantom thief stealing things at night clothed all in white. It wasn't even difficult to come to the conclusion that he had the correct suspect for the case, indeed, when he took a good look at all the circumstantial evidence pointing towards it. And there was rather a lot of that, too.

Oh, the thief knew how to wipe his tracks, he could give him that. But as Kuroba Kaito, it appeared as though… as though he became careless when he was in his civilian identity. His forehead scrunched in thought. Could that truly be the case? There were too many things pointing towards the amateur magician to be cleanly wiped off the slate.

Was that, then, how the class clown liked to handle things? It wasn't an easy way out, in case his classmate thought so, to pretend to be close to how behaved an internationally wanted individual. What on earth did the Kuroba offspring think he was doing, to carry himself – albeit with a few, small differences – pretty much the same way as did what Hakuba knew was his moonlighting counterpart?

The differences could be overlooked easily. There was the obvious one: Kaito was a typical teenager and behaved that way. His fellow classmate showed no respect towards older people than him (he keeps disrespecting his teachers by staging magic shows and mop chases alike right in the middle of their lessons), behaved as the class clown (making people clap, laugh and gape open-mouthed in turns) and all in all was far too young to be considered a potential candidate for an international diamond thief by most.

"What is the result of this calculation, Hakuba-san?" he got called on, right in the middle of his musings. Putting those on hold, he glanced at what was written on the board shortly, before he had his answer ready. Standing up, he gave it to the professor.

"The answer to that calculation is 3.46, I believe." Then he sat back down, once more.

Stunned, all the professor could offer was, "Correct." That professor sure had a hard time trying to catch any of the three off guard. Even Aoko possessed an intellect that one shouldn't underestimate, he'd come to find out. Putting her to a side in his mind, he focused once more on the more pressing matter. She was a mystery for another time entirely, he thought to himself. Especially what with that shooting at the latest Kid heist…

Acting rashly now wouldn't do anybody any good. Saguru had decided to observe rather than openly accuse the amateur magician yet another time of his by now certain alter ego. An unnatural action on his part, maybe, but a long-needed one. Putting his chin on his left hand, the teenage sleuth thought hard and long about what he'd been presented with nigh two days before.

It had been a normal Kid heist – pandemonium reigned supreme, the Police Force was overwhelmed by what the bloody pest had had in store for them this time and been long since left to the traps prepared on the route out and the diamond of the evening had found its way into the thief's pockets shortly after the heist had started. One could only shake one's head at what the Kaitô Kid Task Force had managed to concoct this time and call "plan". Not that it mattered much, in the end. Kaitô Kid could sidestep all of their attempts at catching him with a flourish that left even the longest-serving officers of rank speechless.

Never mind that. Fact was that there'd been someone… dark-ish. Someone who wanted to harm the Kid, if not outright kill him, at that. Someone… who knew the Kid, obviously. Someone who had a score to settle.

If memory served right, then Hakuba had counted at least five bullets going off before someone from the police finally acted on the shots being fired. The first thing Hakuba had done was duck, then once he deemed it safe again (read: pretty much immediately thereafter), look up at where he'd last seen the white-clad thief. For a moment there, he'd thought… but then it was over and he saw the infamous hang glider steadily moving away. He hadn't been sure if he could count that as a victory for the Kid or not, though. Not, that was, until he'd seen the prankster at school, for he'd gotten a glimpse, brief as it was, of the hang glider's cargo – and it hadn't been a person but a dummy flying away if his sight could be trusted.

Oh, he supposed the resourceful magician had a few wigs, a box of make-up and props hidden in strategic places. But he hadn't been able to stomach his morning tea that day and rushed to school, instead of taking his time as per usual. Hakuba hadn't gotten much sleep that night, either, and the few hours that he'd been in light slumber had been spent with nightmares and visions of a dead classmate haunting him. It hadn't been the first time someone shot at Kid at a heist, oh no.

Yet, the sleuth hadn't managed not to feel anxious as he'd awaited the amateur magician's entry into the classroom that day. When he'd finally come, the junior detective had given him a quick eye scan, looking him over for injuries and/or hidden wounds. Only when he hadn't found anything of note, had he at last been able to breathe deeply again and let out a sigh of relief.

The teenager hadn't been able to think of an alternative outcome. He hadn't let himself think of an alternative outcome. His mind going in overdrive, of course it had then produced the most gruesome scenarios of what-ifs and what-could-bes possible.

Had he been able to help? No. Had he done anything at all helping the police or the Kid to escape the situation, if not arrest the shooters? No. He felt a tad useless. What had the idiot thief done to have people after his person this time around? No one knew anything, the investigation into the snipers had resulted in nothing yet – no traces, no hints as to their identities, nothing. And he'd checked the reports he'd been allowed to read thrice, just to make sure they hadn't overlooked anything.

The tell-tale voices of the junior magician and Nakamôri-keibu's daughter were rising exponentially in volume behind him, announcing yet another mop chase for those inclined to notice the hints and put two and two together. Hakuba looked down on his notes. His hand had more or less run on automatic, jotting everything that had been said during the lesson down dutifully.

If the police couldn't find the guys shooting at the Kid… if Kid knew these guys as they seemed to know him – very well, namely, if they could tell his route of escape from a heist location as well as they seemingly were capable of –, was it so out of the way to think that Kid might… his fellow classmate might… actually _want_ to have them after him? Going at it from the kaitou's perspective, it would make sense that he knew about them. Would it be far-fetched to think that the thief… had made them follow him in the first place? Why on earth would he do that? Was he that suicidal? No… there was more to it than that… Hakuba felt that – call it instinct, call it a feeling, a hint of something – but he felt that there was an old story included in the whole idea of the Chase.

Chaos broke out behind him. A mop chase was on, the teacher shouting half-formed words and sentences at the two creating the disturbance, the blond detective sitting in the middle of it all, unaffected by it and only dodging to one side and the other when he absolutely had to. Attention, that was what every performer yearned for in their profession. Attention – the audience's every emotion was usually painted straight onto their faces, they normally wore them on their sleeves as open books to the well-trained eye – and applause.

What he got from those snipers was attention, alright. As for the applause… well, the sleuth certainly did have to ponder the problem more and prod at it from a secure distance before he could say anything for certain. He reserved judgment until he knew for sure just what was the dynamic between the thief and his dark pursuers.

Yes, Hakuba had a lot to think about.

**AN**: … this fanfiction just went where it wanted to… originally I wanted to call it"_Morning Tea, with a few snacks on the side…"_, but then Hakuba got in the way.

He also said not to include those prompts on purpose but, well, as a bit of a side dish casually inserted here and there, rather than make them main things appearing in the story, so there. I listen to my characters. *nod*

Yes, I know I'm late for that challenge. As already said, I only discovered them today, so I'm now putting out fanfiction after fanfiction in response to the awesomeness that is those precious little inspirational daily story prompts! :_D Have a look if you're an author or a reader of fanfictions – the Poirot Café proboards forum is open for all Detective Conan and Magic Kaito fans and people on there are very friendly! ^_^

The Challenge was to include the following words in a story of about 500-1000 words. Well, I said "Whatever", threw the instructions out the window and went with what Hakuba had running through his head. *shrugs*

**#3 Tuesday, September 30**

******1:** rash  
**2:** memory  
**3:** shooting  
**4:** wig  
**5:** morning tea


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